Chapter 5: Everyone Expands their Family Trees: Chris's POV

After Grover figured out Ashton was Water Boy, we got to Camp Half Blood in about an hour and a half. So one of us had found our missing parent. Cool, that probably meant I would be claimed soon, unless Grover, I mean, 'The Cloven Elder', as Juniper always corrected us, predicted our parents for us.

Not long after Grover announced Ashton's parent did a sparkly blue trident appear above his head. Juniper, the stuck-up, over-protective fiancée of Grover said this was what getting claimed looked like.

Everyone was happy for Ashton, except Ashton. He looked nervous. Maybe he felt like a let down to his father? I don't even know who my father is yet, but I already know I'm not going to make him proud.

I grew up in a trailer park with my mom. The abusive woman passed down her shiny black hair to me, probably our only similarity. She said I looked like death; that was the nicest thing she ever said to me.

I usually dressed in all black, "emo style", as the other kids say behind my back. I know people gossip about me. They say I do drugs, that I'm an alcoholic, and that I smoke. I've heard some pretty horrible things said about me.

And they're all true.

I've been pretty depressed a couple of times. I came close to hanging myself once (a memory I like to forget about), but one thing kept me going.

Cinder.

When I met her, it was love at first sight. I know that's cheesy, especially coming from me of all people. But something about that girl made me go gaga.

I've spent the past few years watching her. I know, I know, I sound like a stalker. But all teens stalk each other on Facebook. It's not like real life is much different.

I know I sound like a totally bad guy, but really I want to redeem myself. I know, however, that that will never happen. I'll just have to roll along with life, and possibly pick up Cinder along the way.

Camp Half Blood was… huge, to say the least. There were strawberry fields, tons of cabins all different from one another, and a huge blue mansion in a farm house style. Plus a combat area, a seemingly endless forest, and a rock wall… which would be normal if there wasn't any lava trickling down it.

Those are the things I picked up from my first few glimpses of the camp. All of the other demigods there (or should I say campers?) followed us to a big clearing in between the cabins. There, we were met by two campers and a… horse man. I was starting to get used to all of the weird things today. My substitute being an ancient goddess, satyrs existing, Ashton being able to talk to horses…

The campers were a boy and girl. They both looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. The girl was tan with blond wavy hair and stormy grey eyes; they were kind of intimidating. The boy was less tan with black hair and green eyes. The centaur was a white stallion… and the human part of him looked like a middle-aged man.

Grover introduced us to the campers, "Demigods, and Chiron, I present the six young heroes rescued from across the country."

Val raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me, but if it hadn't been for Cinder and I, you'd still be unconscious in that Mexican restaurant!" All of the campers laughed.

The male camper patted Grover on the back, "More enchilada eating on the job? Enchiladas always make you sleepy. I thought Cloven Elders were better than that."

"Shut up, Percy!" Grover turned to us, "Val, Ashton, Cinder, Colin, Sam, Chris… meet your new family!" Everyone cheered. We all just smiled, unsure of what to say. I managed to keep myself from saying anything awkward right off the bat. It was hard. My ADHD tends to make me blurt out whatever comes to my mind.

The blonde spoke up in a surprisingly confident tone, "I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and leader of the Athena cabin. If you haven't noticed yet, all of the cabins resemble a god or goddess."

The guy, Percy, put his arm around Annabeth, "We hope to place all of you in cabins by nightfall. If not, you'll be sleeping in the Big House. You know, the blue mansion?"

Juniper stepped in front of us gingerly, "Actually, one of them was claimed on the way here…"

"Fantastic!" The centaur (I assumed he was Chiron, the name Grover mentioned earlier) said, "Which one of you was claimed?"

Ashton took his arm off of Val's waist and stepped forward. All the campers started clapping.

"Congrats dude!" Percy said, "So, who is it?"

Grover gulped, "Well, that's the thing Percy, you see…"

"Poseidon." Ashton said.

It was absolutely silent. Percy seemed to be the most shocked. His jaw hung and his eyes were wide with disbelief.

"So he wasn't kidding…" he whispered, then he smiled at Ashton, "Well, it'll be nice to finally share the cabin with someone!" The tension was gone now. Everyone was smiling. I guessed Percy wasn't sad or angry; he had just been shocked, but happy.

Then something crazy happened.

A bunch of campers gasped and we all looked at them. They were looking at us, so I followed their gaze until I found it.

Two symbols, exactly the same, above Val and Cinder's heads. They were golden sparkly owls. They were being claimed.

Annabeth was the first to speak, "Hail Valerie Hanson and Ella-" she stopped as Cinder glared at her, and she started again, "Hail Valerie Hanson and Cinder Genv! Daughters of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. And my sisters."

How she knew their full names, I didn't know. I just guessed she was informed earlier by Grover or Juniper.

"Hey!" Chiron spoke up, "That's my job! Hmph. Nevertheless, new demigods, we have to put you through inspection and orientation."

"Um, actually, Mr. Chiron, sir," Sam's soft voice interrupted him, "Nemesis mentioned me being the daughter of… Demate? Oh, I forget the name…"

"Demeter," Annabeth said, "the goddess of agriculture and farming."

"That was it…" Sam smiled in a shy manner.

"Okay then," Chiron said loudly, "Hail Samona Ripalang, daughter of Demeter."

They took us to the Big House; that's what they called blue farm-house/mansion. They ran a full body search on each one of us. Connor and Travis Stoll, two twin children of Hermes, the god of messengers, ran the searches.

When I was done being searched, I sat on a couch with Colin, Sam, and Val. They had found my stashes of drugs, my cigarettes, my lighter, and my liquor flask. They confiscated it all, naturally. Travis looked a little concerned when he saw the stuff, and judging by the expression on Percy's face, Travis wasn't one to get worried about things like that a lot. I, apparently, was a special case. Hooray.

"Hey, watch where you put your hands!" I heard Cinder call out. Connor had been searching her, but it looks like his hand slipped too far down her back…

'If I were Connor… Man, I'd be savoring every moment of that…' I thought.

"Chris?" Colin snapped me out of it, "I think you have some drool on mouth. You'd be best to wipe that. Want to grab Cinder's attention the right way, hmm?"

Val burst out laughing. She held her stomach as she tried to control her chuckles. Even Sam, who I thought was the most shy person ever, let out a simple giggle. I looked at Colin with a death stare. He seemed rather pleased by his remark.

At this point, Cinder walked over, done with her inspection.

"What's with the laughing fest over here?" she asked.

"Nothing." I growled. But Cinder would find out. I'm sure Val would tell her. They're all buddy-buddy like that. It sickened me. But hey, I guess they're sisters now, so they'll tell each other EVERYTHING now.

To prove that fact, Val started whispering in Cinder's ear. Cinder glanced at Colin and me a few times as they exchanged girly giggles.

Finally, Ashton came over with Percy.

"So," Percy said and clapped his hands together, "We will now orientate you. There once was a video for this, but now Annabeth, Grover, Chiron, and I usually like to do this ourselves. So let's get this show on the road!"